NEF Fast Track Stories: Eliot Brooks

Eliot Brooks (Class of 2014) – Co-founder, Thriva. Eliot worked at Travelex during his NEF year running their online international payments business. It was at Travelex that he also ended up working with, and then for another NEFer, Hamish Grierson (Class of 2012).

Both were keen entrepreneurs, and exploring new business opportunities alongside their day jobs. Eliot suffers from a hereditary medical condition, which led to himself and Hamish exploring the need for individuals to better access and manage their personal health data. Thriva was born out of that insight, and their mission is to empower people to proactively take control of their health. They do this through enabling access to clinical grade data using home blood tests, and deliver results alongside personalised lifestyle advice through an online dashboard.

In 2016 Eliot and Hamish left their jobs to focus full-time on Thriva, along with their third co-founder, Tom Livesey, backed by Seedcamp, Alex Chesterman (founder of Zoopla), Simon Franks (founder of LoveFilm), Taavet Hinrikus (founder of TransferWise) and other angel investors. Thriva has grown rapidly since then – completing more than 100,000 tests, securing a total of £6.7 million in equity financing and growing their team to 30+ people.

Eliot is the COO, and leads on Thriva’s expanding product portfolio and service capabilities, having evolved from a single baseline blood test to a range of different biomarkers and health areas.

Thriva have paid back into the NEF Fast Track programme – hiring Annie Coleridge (Class of 2018), who worked on growing Thriva’s practitioners product during her NEF year and has gone on to become Thriva’s Head of Strategy & Operations.